Johnny Borrell has certainly got all the rock'n'roll moves together. On the opening night of Razorlight's tour, he strode around the stage in tight black trousers, T-shirt and a bold pair of braces, asking the crowd “How ya doin'?” between songs, with a reflexive nonchalance. And the group, whose new album, Slipway Fires, entered the chart this week at No 4, were nothing if not well versed in the process of performance.

The drummer Andy Burrows flailed away with an almost Keith Moon-like fervour on Tabloid Lover and supplied harmony vocals at various key points, while the guitarist Björn Agren and bass player Carl Dalemo both played vigorous supporting roles, particularly in bringing to life spiky, speedy indie-rock songs such as Before I Fall to Pieces and a heroically over-the-top Monster Boots.

They began with their equipment set up as if they were the support act, Burrows playing a kit on the floor in front of the drum riser (where his “proper” kit awaited) and the others crowded together at the front. After four songs, the road crew came and cleared the stage while Borrell (pictured) was singing In the City. And suddenly they looked like the headlining attraction they so clearly had been all along. What strange symbolism was this?

As is his wont, Borrell played the part of the beat poet, romantic hero and all-round rock'n'roll icon to the hilt, and some of his lyrics were a definite cut above the competition. North London Trash from the new album was both a clever piece of self- mythology and an entertaining song in the Ray Davies tradition. However, his declaration during Hostage of Love that “For telling my story/I have been crucified,” was pushing it.

Their biggest hit, America, was slipped in with a minimum of fanfare halfway through, while other hardy dependables, such as Stumble and Fall and Don't Go Back to Dalston, provided the backbone of a set with more variation than in the past. Borrell sang The House - a song imagining his father's death - alone at an electronic piano, strewn with red roses, and there was no doubting his intensity. But it was still a concert that fell short of the greatness to which Razorlight clearly aspire. For all the high-flown rhetoric, the group have got about as far as the Boomtown Rats had by the time of their third album. So it could go either way from here.

Tonight, Brixton Academy, London SW9; Fri, Guildhall, Portsmouth; Sun, Edinburgh Corn Exchange; Mon, Leeds Academy

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